News from Malawi

During 2016 we have pledged to raise £100,000 for international development charity’s Habitat for Humanity’s Hope Builders campaign.  The money we raise will be enough to build 30 ‘Habitat homes’, helping to lift many people out of poverty housing.

Currently, 17 members of our team, including our Chief Executive, Chris Endsor, are in Malawi on a Global Village Trip, building some of the homes and experiencing for themselves the work Habitat for Humanity does.   Here, Chris tells us a little about the trip so far and the families we are supporting.

“After a lengthy journey we arrived safely in Salima, Malawi last Saturday. Since then we have been busy building homes and getting to know the families we are supporting as well as experiencing some of the local culture.

We had a lovely, warm welcome from members of the local community in Salima, who performed a traditional song and dance for our arrival, and we have been working with them throughout the week to build three new ‘Habitat homes’.

The poverty we have seen is truly heart-breaking, but at the same time the warmth of the welcome from the local villagers and their huge gratitude towards us has been immensely uplifting.  Being here we can see first-hand how having a decent place to live will genuinely transform the lives of the families we are supporting through Habitat for Humanity’s Orphans and Vulnerable Children’s programme.

 All of the families we are helping – Agness Mapepa and her two nieces and nephew, Elida Matafale and her three children and Marium Jumbe who takes care of four orphans along with her own two children – currently live in houses which are in an incredibly dilapidated condition.  The roofs leak badly during the rainy season and as they have been built using unburnt bricks and mud these simply melt away when it’s wet.  Neither Elida nor Marium’s homes have a toilet and whilst Agness’s home does, it does not have a roof therefore disease can spread easily when there’s heavy rain.

The new homes we are helping to build will provide Agness, Elida and Marium and their dependants with a safe, secure and happy place to call home and enjoy some of the very simple and basic things in life which we all take for granted. 

I and my fellow volunteers from Miller Homes are all too aware of how very lucky we are to be experiencing the work Habitat for Humanity does in action.  It has been incredibly emotional yet fantastically rewarding and has allowed us to see for ourselves the massive difference our fundraising efforts will make to lives of the families we are helping.”

If you would like to support our fundraising for Habitat for Humanity, you can do so via our Just Giving page.  Thank you.